A SCHOOL has introduced an all-day ban on pupils using their mobile phones.

Archway School in Paganhill, Stroud, announced the tough stance on mobiles in a letter to parents.

The move at Archway follows a comment earlier this year by Schools Minister Nick Gibb, who said phones should be banned from schools.

Mr Gibb said he believed too much time on smartphones was bad for students, distracting them from their work and preventing them from interacting with others as often as he felt they should.

In the letter, school head Colin Belford writes: “In line with many schools in the country we are changing our stance on mobile phones.

“Students will not be allowed to use mobile phones in school.”

Mr Belford then goes on to outline the protocol for students who do bring their phones to school.

“Mobile phones must be switched off and out of sight from the moment they pass through the school gates in the morning to the moment they leave the school gates at the end of each day, including at break and at lunchtimes.

“It is not acceptable for phones merely to be put on silent or pager mode.

“Where a student is seen with a mobile phone, they will be asked to hand it over to the member of staff.

"There will be arrangements made for its collection at the end of the day.”

One parent of an Archway pupil commented: “I have conflicting views of mobile phones. I expect they have banned them because kids are using them in lessons, and I can only imagine how difficult that would be to manage.

“However, I like to be able to contact my daughter if our arrangements to pick her up after school have changed. And children sometimes use their phones to photograph homework.

“But on balance I trust the school to know the best way to keep control in lessons, and that unless phones are being used to support a lesson then they should be turned off during lessons.

“If pupils aren’t respecting that rule then the school are quite right to ban them during the day.

“They won’t be able to play on their phones when they are at work, so the school are doing the right thing by preparing them for the world of work.”

Several schools in the Stroud district have already banned mobile-phone use, including Thomas Keble and Stroud High School.